AAVE in Their Eyes Were Watching God

 Landon Lofton

Ms. Harris

ENGL 2017

April 27, 2022

AAVE in Their Eyes Were Watching God

In Zora Hurston’s famous novel, Janie exhibits a type of speech that sets her apart from other mulatta characters in fiction, especially when compared to the characters in Passing. This vernacular, specifically African American Vernacular English, is incredibly important to the story by characterizing parts of Janie just by existing, and as a vessel whereby Hurston can glorify the African American Oral Tradition. 


AAVE sits in a precarious spot between not being recognized as a valid language for study and one that has been found as “In contrast, researchers, educators (i.e., 1996, Ebonics Resolution), and parents (i.e., “The Ann Arbor Black English Case”) supporting a difference view argue that AAVE is a legitimate language with its own rules for pronunciation, grammar, syntax, and semantics.” (Harris, 194). The arguments over the language are difficult to distinguish between systematic prejudice against black creation and genuine discussion of the composition of the language. In any case, its validity as an art can be found in the oral storytelling tradition in black history. Hurston creates a vibrant character that comes all the way through black history in a way, from her grandmother’s time and to the end of her own, from a position of having no power to having control and agency in her life and to herself. To tell this story, Hurston takes on a more unique medium to telling Janie’s story, and many scholars agree, “With this claim, she invokes new avenues into an African American tradition that has privileged voice as its empowering trope.” (Clarke, 599). 


The importance of her speech is not just in representation then, but also in how it appears now, as children experience the need to ‘code-switch’ away from what they hear and home and from each other. As the research team states, AAVE is still viewed with assumptions as a lack of education or mental ability, which has been proved wrong again and again. Janie deals with assumptions about her ability to even exist by the notion of her speech, her gender, her skin color, etc. By Hurston’s hand, Janie keeps her way throughout it all, not ever losing the deeply black identity, ultimately betting her entire life and story on the very oral tradition it emulates. This is not a discussion of the academic argument of AAVE, but “As scholars of language have long professed, spoken and written forms of a language are not necessarily (or ever) equivalent in style, meaning, presentation, interpretation, etc…” (Bailey, 325). It is important to separate this oral tradition from the pedantic discussion of its rules and arrangement here, as Hurston holds to what is a true black art, and arguably the most faithfully represented theme in a novel that seems to be one of the most purposefully digestible to white folks. 

Works Cited

Harris, Yvette R., and Valarie M. Schroeder. “Language Deficits or Differences: What We Know about African American Vernacular English in the 21st Century.” International Education Studies, vol. 6, no. 4, Jan. 2013, pp. 194–204. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.ulm.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1067596&site=eds-live. 


Bailey, Amanda. “Necessary Narration in Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The Comparatist, vol. 40, Oct. 2016, p. 319. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.ulm.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsglr&AN=edsglr.A470463656&site=eds-live. 


Burrows, Stuart. “‘You Heard Her, You Ain’t Blind’: Seeing What’s Said in ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God.’” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, vol. 34, no. 3, 2001, pp. 434–52, https://doi.org/10.2307/1346075. Accessed 27 Apr. 2022.


Clarke, Deborah. “‘The Porch Couldn’t Talk for Looking’: Voice and Vision in Their Eyes Were Watching God.” African American Review, vol. 35, no. 4, 2001, pp. 599–613, https://doi.org/10.2307/2903284. Accessed 27 Apr. 2022.


Simmons, Ryan. “‘The Hierarchy Itself’: Hurston’s ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ and the Sacrifice of Narrative Authority.” African American Review, vol. 36, no. 2, Summer 2002, pp. 181–93. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ulm.idm.oclc.org/10.2307/1512254.

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